Use the brush to decoupage a frame side, then line up a paint chip with the side, press flat, and let dry. Then lay the frame down on the cutting mat and use the craft knife to cut off excess paint chip. Repeat for each side of frame. When completely dry, add three more layers of decoupage medium over entire frame. Give time to dry between each coat.

Why let these strips of color go to waste? Use paint chips for this easy-to-make mobile that catches the breeze in a colorful way.

What you need:

pencil

1" circle template (like a spool of thread)

30-40 paint chips

scissors

access to a sewing machine

thread

string or yarn

2 wooden embroidery hoops (one 5", one 8")

hot glue gun, glue

With the pencil, trace 310 circles on the wrong side of the paint chips using the 1" template. Cut them out with scissors. Take the sewing machine, set to straight stitch, and pick 10-14 paint-chip circles to make your first chain. Line up a half inch apart and feed them through, adding a new paint chip circle until you've finished the first chain. Repeat until you have 20 chains, and lay them flat so they don't tangle.

Now take the large embroidery hoop and cut four 4" lengths of string or yarn, double knotting them equidistantly around the hoop. Then do the same with the smaller hoop with 6" lengths of string. Gather and knot together the untied ends of string. Hang the smaller hoop from a c-clamp attached to a shelf or window ledge. Make sure it hangs level. Put the large hoop below the smaller one, matching up the strings, and tie the larger hoop's strings on the smaller hoop's with a double knot.

Take out the hot glue gun and, starting with the smaller hoop, glue one end of eight paint-chip chains around the outside of the hoop about 1" apart. Repeat on the larger hoop with the remaining thirteen chains.

You should have some leftover circles not used in the chains; use those to glue on the parts of the hoops that are not already covered with circles.

June 27, 2012

Jetting around the globe bloats your carbon footprint. Here are some items that help shrink that load.

To spot your bags on the carousel — and to make sure they find their way home if lost — tie MOTHERBOARD GIFTS' Circuit Board Luggage Tags onto your packs. They consist of cast-off computer parts and come in catch-your-eye colors. $20 for a set of three

The GREEN EARTH GUIDES lead you to public transportation, eco-minded businesses, and organic, vegan cuisine. Currently, the books cover France, Spain, Switzerland, Venice, and Vermont, with England and Ireland on the way. $3 to $16

Or you can eschew tips printed on dead trees by downloading all you’ll need onto your iPhone or Android: The TRIPSKETCH GREEN TRAVELER app, which donates 20% of its proceeds to environmental causes, recommends sustainable hotels, walking and paddling tours, “voluntourism” opportunities, outdoor parks, and farmers’ markets. Two other apps to know about are KAYAK’s, which filters car-rental options by gas mileage and whether they’re hybrid, andGETAROUND, a vehicle-sharing service.

June 21, 2012

Kenneth Brower's father, David Brower, is widely regarded as one of the greatest environmental activists of his time. The elder Brower became the first executive director of the Sierra Club in 1952 and he spearheaded many of the Club's famous wilderness campaigns. He also founded several environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters, and Earth Island Institute.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the legendary activist's birth, Kenneth Brower put together The Wildness Within: Remembering David Brower (Heyday, 2012), a collection of interviews with some of the people whose lives and careers were changed by his father.

Sierra: What was the impetus behind writing The Wildness Within?

Kenneth Brower: I had a couple. One was the idea that this would be a piece of our centennial celebration; it triggered the whole centennial. I also owed Sierra Club a biography of my father. They've been very generous; I’m 8 years too late. The whole biography’s been intimidating, and I haven’t been able to get to it. I thought that this would start the process. I’m hoping to get some raw material together to get the biography going.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of who could tell this kind of story. I could do sequels one, two, three, and four on the people who did cross paths with my father. These just happened to be the ones who came up first. And the challenge was how to limit this, because I really could have gone on for a long time. I didn’t find them repetitious. I found that everyone had their own angle on my father; each person had such a different personality, and had different ways my father started them off with his mentorship.

June 11, 2012

Father's Day is just around the corner. Luckily we have a few ideas to help you celebrate your dad on June 17. Check the Green Life blog all week to find more inspiration.

10 Great Gifts for Dad from the Sierra Club

Browse the Sierra Club's online store to find outdoorsy volumes for dads of all persuasions. To celebrate Father's Day, we're offering a special deal: Use the discount code DAD2012 at checkout to get 20 percent off!

SIERRA: Is there a way that we can change today's convenience mindset of disposable everything and come back to a society with less waste?

Edward Humes: J. Gordon Lippencott, the father of corporate branding, gave us the philosophical statement of what the economy would look like after WWII. It was based on getting people to violate their most basic instinct of survival — to be thrifty — and [embrace the idea] that it was a good thing to get rid of perfectly good usable products and replace them with something new. That was the core of this new economy of abundance. It’s an illusion that things will never run out. We are an experiment on waste as the driver of prosperity.

Well, we do all seem to want to have the most up-to-date technologies. How can we change that?

With the up-to-date technology of days gone by, you could go to the store and buy a television set and bring it home and you could be assured that if something in it failed or some component was developed that was superior, it could be upgraded. There was a built-in longevity to a lot of our products that has gone away. We’ve accepted this idea that durable goods are no longer durable.

What is the most shocking thing that you discovered?

The whole idea that waste has become such a big part of our economy — that it is our top export. Scrap paper and scrap metal are our highest volume exports. We send more of that to China than anything else. They make stuff out of it and sell it back to us. That casts us in the role of China’s trash compacter.

May 03, 2012

We asked gardening-education experts Whitney Cohen and John Fisher to share tips from their new guide The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids(Timber Press, May 2012). This week, Cohen and Fisher will help your kids develop their green thumbs.

Tip #4: Harvest Applesauce

Getting kids to finish their fruits and veggies can sometimes be a challenge — but there are a few healthy snacks that most kids will devour. One of them is applesauce. Cohen and Fisher's recipe guarantees the tough work of growing an apple tree will not go to waste:

1. If you have a food mill, simply cut the apples in half or, if they are very large, in quarters. If you do not have a food mill, core peel, and cut the apples into halves or quarters.

2. Pour about 1/2 inch of apple juice into a large pot, add the apples, and place over medium heat and cover.

3. When the cooking liquid starts to boil, uncover the pot. Cook the apples for about 30 minutes, stirring and mashing with a large fork [or] wooden spoon . . . until the apples reach your desired consistency.

4. If you have a food mill, pass the mixture through to get smooth applesauce. If not, simply mash up and enjoy a chunky applesauce."

May 02, 2012

We asked gardening-education experts Whitney Cohen and John Fisher to share tips from their new guide The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids(Timber Press, May 2012). This week, Cohen and Fisher will help your kids develop their green thumbs.

Tip #3: Personalize Your Pumpkins

Cohen and Fisher tell us:

"There are not many vegetables that you can write your name on, but you can with squash. When your green little pumpkin is about 3 to 4 weeks old and still on the vine, take a blunt, point object like a nail or ballpoint pen and etch in a word or drawing. In the following weeks, you will see what you drew grow with the pumpkin."

May 01, 2012

We asked gardening-education experts Whitney Cohen and John Fisher to share tips from their new guide The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids(Timber Press, May 2012). This week, Cohen and Fisher will help your kids develop their green thumbs.

Tip #2: Encourage Play

When in doubt, throw in a slide. One success story comes from a quick-on-her-feet mom who realized that her children's slide could double as an entrance to the garden. Once inside the garden, kids can collect building materials (bamboo shoots and plum tree branches) to build a teepee or fort.

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